Switch your ATS or connect it: what to prepare for a smooth migration

The fear of switching tools

The ATS is a recruiting team’s memory: years of candidates, conversations, notes and clients. That is also why teams hesitate to change. Nobody wants to lose that history, or stall the team for weeks.

The good news: adopting a new sourcing platform does not force you to choose between “keep everything” and “lose everything”. There are two ways forward, and the right choice mostly depends on the role you want your current tool to play.

Option 1: keep your ATS and connect it

You are happy with your ATS, your processes run smoothly and your team is used to it. In that case, the new tool plugs into it.

In practice, the connection goes through your ATS’s API: the two tools exchange information both ways. You can query your ATS and talent pool directly from the sourcing platform, and candidates, clients and their statuses stay in sync.

This option fits when:

• your ATS is well established and liked;
• other teams or tools depend on it;
• you want to add AI sourcing and prospecting without touching the rest.

The prerequisite: your ATS must have an API. Most ATSs on the market do, such as Bullhorn, Loxo, Ashby, Greenhouse or Teamtailor.

Option 2: migrate to an all-in-one platform

Your ATS costs a lot for what you use, it does not fit how you work today, or you juggle too many tools. In that case, it can be simpler to bring everything together: sourcing, prospecting, campaigns, ATS and CRM.

The migration then means moving your data into the new platform, once, cleanly. You keep your history, but with a single tool.

What to prepare

Whichever option you choose, a successful integration is prepared. Three things make the difference.

1. Extracting your client data

The companies you work with, their contacts, the history of conversations and mandates. It is the foundation of your commercial activity: it must arrive complete.

2. Extracting your candidate data

The profiles in your talent pool, their contact details, their statuses, your recruiters’ notes and, where possible, the attached documents. It is often the largest volume, and the most valuable.

3. Access to your current tool

For a connection, access to the API of your ATS, CRM or HRIS. For a migration, a full export, in a format your tool can produce.

Use the opportunity to clean up: duplicates, outdated profiles, fields nobody uses. A migration is the best moment to start from a clean base, and to check that your retention periods comply with GDPR.

The steps of an integration

1. Scoping. A call to review your tools, your data and how you work, and to choose between connection and migration.
2. Extraction. You prepare the export of your client and candidate data, with the integration team’s help on what to extract.
3. Connection or import. The team connects the tools or imports the data, then checks the field mapping.
4. Go-live. You check the import with the team, then your recruiters work in the new tool.

With a dedicated team and well-prepared data, the process takes a few days, not weeks.

Questions to ask a vendor

• Who runs the integration: you, or a dedicated team at the vendor?
• Which tools can be connected, and which way does the data flow?
• What happens to the history: notes, documents, statuses?
• Who owns the data, and can you export it if you leave?
• Where is it hosted, and is a data processing agreement signed?

With Profilr

Profilr connects to any ATS, CRM or HRIS with an API, and also has its own ATS / CRM in the Agentic CRM plan. Either way, the integration or migration is run by our dedicated team, in a few days. Your data stays yours and is hosted in Europe. All the details are on the Integrations page, or book a call with our team.